High hopes.

What seems a long time ago,  maybe 6 or 7 years or so,  I saw on a local market what I thought was fresh ginger but it was Jerusalem Artichoke.  Never heard of it or even eaten it,  at least not that I remember,  but I didn't buy any.

A couple of years ago some friends of ours who like us have  problems growing root vegetables,  said that they were growing Jerusalem Artichokes without any trouble.  So I looked in my tried and trusted veg book  'The New Kitchen Garden'  - there will be an Amazon link  to it on the pop up ads to the left of this.....and yes it would appear to be one of the better root veg for us.

Then fast forward to early December last year when on the market in Ugijar I saw them for sale again.  At least this time I knew they would (probably) grow on our land but still hadn't ever tasted them.  So I bought a kilo - 1 euro - and first we peeled, boiled and mashed a large knobbly bit,  then another large piece we peeled and roasted alongside our Sunday roast.  We both enjoyed the roasted version better,  the flavour seemed richer, more intense.  The other 7 pieces I put into potting compost  to hopefully over-winter and a few weeks ago we started to water them. 

Yesterday  we tipped out the roots and lo and behold they had started to grow!  Lots of roots from each piece so up to the top terrace we went and planted them in a row in front of  a fence.  In a row,  because they should - fingers crossed - grow to about 2 or even 2.4 metres high and they will be an good screen.  Sometimes the plant is known as a Sun Choke,  all to do with its name....  Helianthus tuberosus. 

This from Wikipedia:

Despite its name, the Jerusalem artichoke has no relation to Jerusalem, and it is not a type of artichoke, though both are members of the daisy family. The origin of the name is uncertain. Italian settlers in the USA called the plant girasole, the Italian word for sunflower, because of its resemblance to the garden sunflower (note: both the sunflower and the sunchoke are part of the same genus: Helianthus). Over time, the name girasole may have been changed to Jerusalem.  The English later corrupted girasole artichoke (meaning, “sunflower artichoke”) to Jerusalem artichoke.  Another explanation for the name is that the Pilgrims, when they came to the New World, named the plant with regard to the “New Jerusalem” they believed they were creating in the wilderness.

 However there maybe a slight side effect which you may not want to know about,  their nickname is 'fartichokes'  as explained here:    

In 1621 the writer John Goodyer wrote of the Jerusalem Artichoke, “…in my judgement, which way soever they be drest and eaten they stir up and cause a filthie loathsome stinking winde with the bodie, thereby causing the belly to bee much pained and tormented…. more fit for swine, than men.”

So they are planted,  they should grow,  we will enjoy them and if there is a side effect,  I won't say.

But as to the high hopes, all to do with the height of the plant and the lovely 'sun' flowers that we will be able to see.